Apsley Primary School students have helped design and paint a new mural at their school, with the aid of Melbourne-based artist Philip Kalinowski, last month.

The large mural, which adorns a storeroom near the school’s front gates, celebrates both the natural features and values that students associate with the school.

Principal Tanya Turner said Mr Kalinowski involved students throughout the process of creating the mural after agreeing to the project.

“In Edenhope, Georgina Campbell runs an artist residency program where artists come and stay for a month or a few weeks and do things in the community and spend time in the town,” Ms Turner said.

“When we decided we wanted to engage an artist of some sort, Georgina put tenders out to see who was out there.

“Phil put in a tender and he’s a graphic designer and lettering artist, so Georgina thought he’d be a good fit for the project.

“In the first lesson he rolled out a big brown piece of paper and the kids had to draw and write what Apsley Primary School and the wider community meant and represented to them.

“They all put their ideas down on the paper and then Phil took it away and came back with a design that had to then get the tick of approval from the kids and staff.”

Ms Turner said Mr Kalinowski chose elements of the final mural from the students’ initial brainstorming.

“We had all sorts of things written on there – our school values, the flowering gum and what the school meant to the students,” she said.

“We’d been doing a lot of work with Bronwyn Perryman through BirdLife Australia looking at the red-tailed black cockatoo, so that was a feature along with a nature walk that we’ve got.

“He had a few different colour combinations, but the colours we went with were red, burnt orange and yellow. It complemented the colours we’ve got here at the school.”

Mr Kalinowski then stenciled the final design on the side of the building, working alongside students to help fill it in.

Through professional connections, Mr Kalinowski was able to secure free paint from Dulux’s community donation program.

“Dulux were happy to come on board and support the project by supplying all the paint, which was amazing, because it saved the school a bit of money,” Ms Turner said.

“The kids were involved in painting it, so there’s some real ownership and pride for them with the final mural.

“Even now, they’ll point and say ‘that’s the bit I painted’.” The mural was unveiled on May 30, with community members gathering for a barbecue at the school.

Ms Turner said the mural was so well received the school was already thinking of ways it might collaborate with Mr Kalinowski on future projects.

“We’d love to get him back for another couple of projects, we’re just not sure what,” she said.

“He’s gone back to Melbourne, but don’t worry – we’ve got his contact details.”

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